The Ballad of Zaraki No Kenpachi
by Jhard53
Summary: After his fight with one Kurosaki Ichigo. Zaraki Kenpachi decides to go to the real world to fight with Ichigo for their mutual benefit. He helps toughen Ichigo, and Ichigo teaches him how to talk to his Zanpakuto. NO YAOI. will be romance. HETERO.
1. Chapter 1: Bored

The Ballad of Zaraki No Kenpachi

By Jhard53

"I'm bored. I need someone strong to fight against," complained 11th division Captain Zaraki Kenpachi gruffly, "No one worth their salt will give me a fair fight. That byakuya twit won't go for 5 minutes without relying on those damned pansy blossoms. Robot freak turns into goo after I slice his baby shaped bankai up. Ice boy is useless unless you want frostbite. Soi fong runs around using shunpo too much and it becomes irritating. While Komamura, Yamamoto, Kyoraku, and Ukitake all decline to fight. What the HELL!"

"Don't you think it's cause you're too strong ken-chan? They don't really stand a chance against you without cheap tricks," Piped up the diminutive and pink-haired Kusajishi Yachiru 11th division vice-captain. The two were currently outside in one of 11th squad's training field resting under a particularly large tree.

"Tch. I know damn well how strong Kyoraku, Ukitake, and the Commander-General are. They could fight me honestly, but they just don't like the idea of fighting against 'allies.' Bunch of ridiculous bull shit if you ask me," laments Kenpachi.

"You haven't had a good and fun fight since you and Ichi got all cut up, right ken-chan? Ichi is a really good opponent don't you think ken-chan? I really like Ichi. The look in his eyes when you two were fighting was a real good look. He was really enjoying himself I think. Don't you think so too ken-chan?" Yachiru's rambling rant was followed by a smile and a fit of sporadic giggling.

"Yeah its been a while since I was really able to cut loose like that. Wonder what the strawberry-head is up to now? I've been meaning for a rematch with him whether I know my zanpakuto's name or not," said Kenpachi thoughtfully.

"Say, Ken-chan? Have you tried talking to your zanpakuto any lately?" asked Yachiru brightly.

"Ya, I've tried but the damn words feel like saw dust in my mouth. I feel stupid apologizing to a damned sword. I just don't get it at all. Maybe I should ask Ichigo how he managed to talk with his. I imagine is way isn't as stupid or pansy as most people's methods," said Kenpachi with a look of distaste.

"Hey, hey! I have an idea that I think you'll like Ken-chan! Why don't we go to the human world and help Ichigo with his training by fighting him, and he can help you talk to your zanpakuto?" beamed the pink-haired midget.

"Well, I suppose that ain't such a bad idea there. I think I'll go ahead and ask the Commander-General for permission to leave for training. We can make girly-girl Yumichika and Ikaku do all the paper work while I'm gone," said the nearly psychopathic killer. He stood up and started to walk. Before he took two steps, and with barely a whisper of sound, his vice-captain was resting on his shoulder as he made his way to the 1st division to request his training time. Watch out world, watch out Kurosaki Ichigo! Kenpachi's comin' to town!


	2. Chapter 2: Just slicin’ an dicin’

Chapter 2: Just slicin' an dicin' and a WHOLE LOTTA BLOOD!

Oh yeah, I don't own bleach. Tch. Mindless infidels…. I mean uh… just start readin.

Ichigo sat dazed, staring out the window. Over the last few days it seemed that hollows had been showing up in growing numbers and far more frequently. It was almost as if a large reiatsu, or two, were attracting them. So instead of sleeping or doing homework Ichigo had been forced to continuously slay hollows with barely even a break. Just being able to stare abjectly out of a window seemed to be an impossible task without his Shinigami representative badge alerting him to yet…bzzzzz… ANOTHER FREAKIN' HOLLOW!

Ichigo slowly, and much too calmly, got out of his seat and excused himself all the while gripping his badge with white knuckles within the secretive confines of his right pocket. Only a few select people in the room were aware for the reasons behind the orange-haired teenager's excessive absences, and they all watched him leave the room knowingly.

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Zaraki Kenpachi was having a bad day. He had foolishly listened to the hapless directions from his pink haired wannabe daughter who seemed to giggle in glee as they repetitively got lost amidst the maze of concrete towers and metal poles. _God, this place is more __fuckin__' __confusin__' than __Seiretei__ could EVER hope to be,_ were the large man's aggravated thoughts. _First she says 'Left, Ken-__chan__, left!' then its 'Why did you lead us to this dead end Ken-__chan__? I told you that right was better.' If only I had the ability to sense__fuckin__'__reiatsu__…. Only way I'm __gonna__ run into __Ichigo__ is either if I trip on him, or we both end up __fightin__' the same hollow._

"Look Ken-chan it's a hollow!" came Yachiru's intruding squeal.

"Well, looks like I can let off a little steam now, eh? Hope it isn't took weak. Otherwise this will be a waste of my time!" Howling with bloodlust the mighty Zaraki Kenpachi charged towards the masked devil, preparing to have a long drawn out battle as he toyed with the poor thing. His howling, screaming, war cry driven charge was brought to a screeching halt as a seemingly ignorant strawberry-headed shinigami shunpo'd right into his path. crash!

"The fuck do ya think your doin' you orange-haired freak! Outta my way!... unless you want to fight?" Added Kenpachi hopefully as he picked himself up off the now-cracked cement sidewalk.

"The hell? What hit me? Felt like I got hit by a semi…." Was Ichigo's dazed and confused response from inside a mailbox. He had apparently been shoved headlong into the side of the mailbox and was now wearing it like a helmet.

"Ichi!" Yachiru hopped off her perch and landed gracefully on top of the metal letter container. "Ichi…. Where did your head go? gasp! Is it lost in this box? Don't worry I can get it out. Hold still for just….a….sec…" said the pink-haired midget, as she carefully lined up a slice with her zanpakuto.

slice! "There he is! I found you!" said she of the pink hair while giggling madly at her success.

Ichigo, now with a "WTF" look on his face and a neat cut across the bridge of his nose, stared up at the shinigami taichou and fukutaichou for what seemed like an eternity. Then, with speed that surprised all attending, he extracted his head from the tattered remains of the mailbox and proceeded to yell.

"THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!? You almost decapitated and nearly maimed my face! Don't you have any common sense?" screamed Ichigo as his face turned beat red in anger.

While Yachiru defended her acts as some sick and twisted version of peek-a-boo the hollow, that had originally started the whole affair, slowly and quietly started to back away from the insane trio. Even hollows who are stupid enough to be attracted to large sources of reiatsu, which is like suicide in the first place, know when to call it quits when faced with an enemy even more psychotic than themselves.

"Oi, get back here you masked bastard. I need to vent!" kenpachi yelled to the retreating back of the terrified hollow. Before any of the 3 could flash step and catch the masked deviant, said hollow quickly opened a garganta portal back to Hueco Mundo and hopped in so that the cycloptic giant wouldn't get the chance to extrapolate on his meaning of the word "vent."

"Tch. Ran like a loser bitch. Well, since I found you Ichigo, we might as well fight it out!" improvised the bloodthirsty taichou, as he launched himself towards the stunned shinigami representative with a large burst of golden reiatsu. Ichigo barely had time to block the over-head swing, with his overly large zanpakuto Zangetsu, the force from the blow created yet another crater under Ichigo's feet. Ichigo's teeth rattled in his mouth and his bones seemed to creak under the pure pressure and strength of the attack and knew that he couldn't avoid any slip ups. His first thought was of escape, and with hardly any hesitation he fluidly shifted his sword to allow the power house strike to slip off to the side and uselessly destroy the ground to his right. While the dust cloud was still obscuring the insane captain's sight Ichigo decided to shunpo his ass home, and since he had never seen Kenpachi flash step so much as 3 feet before he assumed that the man was incapable. _ Hah, try to keep up with this __ya__ tank!_ Thought Ichigo as he landed on the roof of a nearby building. Smirking, he glanced over his shoulder hoping to see the confused look on Zaraki Kenpachi's face as he realized that Ichigo had escaped, but instead of seeing Kenpachi there was nothing but the craters on the street. With a sense of foreboding the orange-haired shinigami turned to flash step away again, only to run face-first into the rock hard body of the 11th squad captain.

"What? Assumed I don't know how to shunpo? While it may be a cheap ass trick I use it to keep people from runnin' from me. With the amount of physical conditioning that I do I'm probably one of the faster captains. No runnin'. In a fight between real warriors there should never be any chasing. Just slicin' an dicin' and a WHOLE LOTTA BLOOD! MAHAHAHA." Was the only warning Ichigo got before he was defending against a slew of Kenpachi-strength attacks that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Block left, dodge right, duck low, backwards roll. Ichigo was sorely pressed to keep the saw-like blade from finding purchase on his flesh.

Thankfully, a distraction arrived in the form of a spirit arrow aimed at Kenpachi's heart. Momentarily stopping his ruthless offensive on Ichigo the enraged captain effortlessly defeated the attack with a flick of his zanpakuto. Small as it was, the momentary skip in attacks allowed Ichigo to jump back, gather his reiatsu, and yell: "BAN KAI!" The immediate area was suddenly and inexplicably assaulted by a fierce dust storm which seemed to revolve around the orange-haired shinigami representative like a whirl-pool of power. The dust storm was dispelled with a pulse of reiatsu. Ichigo now stood dressed in a set of tattered and all-black clothes, while holding a seemingly normal black zanpakuto complete with a manji-shaped cross guard and a short chain coming from the end of the hilt.

"Hooo? A Ban Kai, eh? Just what I've been waitin' for. Now show me your full powers! Show me your Ban Kai and I'll take off the eyepatch!" crowed the bloodthirsty monster in glee.

"Show you my Ban Kai?"said Ichigo with a slight smirk on his face, "Here's the first lesson on my Ban Kai: it gives me speed that surpasses the flash step by leaps and bounds. Care for a demonstration?"

"Yes! Koi(come in Japanese.)! I will enjoy defeating your Ban Kai and exploiting its weakness!" the captain's eye was wide with ecstasy now.

"Fine then, just keep your eyes wide open and hope you don't miss a thing," replied Ichigo as the smirk turned into a full-fledged grin of amusement. One second Kenpachi saw Ichigo standing there, and then suddenly he just wasn't there. _Fast! _Was Kenpachi's only tangible thought before the expected attack should have landed on him. But, nothing happened. The eye patch wearing psychopath stood there for a full five seconds before he realized the truth.

"The fucker ran…"

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Hah. I think I need to work on my dialogue. Idk it seems slightly off to me. Oh and I can't believe I actually got reviews so fast. I was bored today in math so I wrote that short little chapter today in my notebook, and decided: "Hey, I read a lot of fanfics so why not post some of the shit that I come up with." Well I posted the chapter and come home from watching a movie with my gf only to find that I have two reviews already. Heh. So now here I am thanking you guys who reviewed.

Zetsuki: Thanks for the compliment! And yes that is an awesome scene thanks for the idea… watch for it in the upcoming few chapters or so. I'll be sure to work it in ;D

my renji-kun: haha glad to see you want me to update just knowing that you want more makes me want to write more.

Not to be greedy. Ok. Fine. I'll admit to being a little greedy. But, seriously I love the reviews and any hints or criticism is welcome. Even flames to a certain point… I said to a certain point DAMNIT!


	3. Chapter 3 11th Squad: Kurokawa Branch

Chapter 3

11th Squad: the Kurokawa Branch

Disclaimer: don't own bleach. Or the characters. Or naruto. w/e.

"You really saved my ass with that arrow back there Ishida."

"Eh, I can't have you dying to a shinigami. It's going to be myself, the last quincy, who you will fall to Kurosaki." Replied the glasses wearing Ishida Uryu as the two ran away from the insane captain at top speed.

"Tch. Whatever. Thanks. Look let's just get back to class before I miss any more information. I've had poor enough attendance lately as is." Snapped back the orange haired shinigami. They continued on back towards school with hardly another word.

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Apologizing to the teacher as they walked in, Ishida and Ichigo took their seats while trying to act as if Ichigo didn't just have a near death experience. They pulled it off perfectly while managing to give both of their friends, Inoue Orihime and Sado "Chad" Yasutora, rather meaningful glances. Oh yes, there would be questions at lunch.

_Now, if only I can just make it through the next hour of school. There's no way I'm __gonna__ fall asleep during lunch or P.E._ Soon enough though, the lack of sleep caught up to the exhausted teenage powerhouse and he lost consciousness on his text book snoring away.

Ichigo awoke to the screeching voice of Keigo, who was flying through the air about to tackle the orange haired teenager, shouting: "ICHIGOOOO! Do you want to come eat lunch with meeee?" Asano Keigo's face met the back of Ichigo's fist as he promptly replied: "Naw, that's ok. Me, Uryu, Inoue, and Chad have some important business to discuss in private." Following this statement Keigo became overly-dramatic thinking that everyone was abandoning him. _Maybe he's right?__ Maybe we are ditching him…__ The guy is just plain creepy always __askin__' to eat lunch with me…__ is he gay? __thought__Ichigo_ Dismissing the thoughts as trivial he started heading towards the roof with the rest of the gang in tow.

Once on the roof it was Inoue who asked the first question. "Was it a strong hollow Kurosaki-kun? I was a little worried when I saw Ishida-kun leave the room as well."

"Naw, it wasn't the hollow that was the problem… there was another shinigami there. He attacked me after we collided while trying to kill the same hollow. Did you sense his reiatsu, Ishida? Is that why you came to help me?"

"Of course. How could you not sense a reiatsu presence as large as his? It's excessively huge!" commented the quincy in irritation. A smirk then grew onto his features as he continued, "Though with your level of ability it should be expected. You honestly need to work on that, Kurosaki."

Chad interrupted before Ichigo could start yelling and asked, "He must have been strong in order to give you problems, Ichigo."

"Well, his name is Zaraki Kenpachi and he does happen to be the captain of the 11th division… so yeah he's pretty dang strong…" said Ichigo before being cut off by the nervous Ishida.

"That was a CAPTAIN? I just shot a spirit arrow at a CAPTAIN, Kurosaki?! Why didn't you tell me this little fact earlier?!"

"It's fine. It's fine," said Ichigo with a small wave of his hand, "to a guy like him that was pretty much a cheerful 'good morning' compared to what he does every time he sees me…"

"Wow, it sounds like you two have met before Kurosaki-kun." said big booby insightfully.

"Uh, yeah I guess you could say that," pondered Ichigo as he scratched his head like a monkey, "I faced off against him in a one on one battle back when we were rescuing Rukia. I wouldn't exactly call it a victory because I ended up with his zanpakuto through the left side of my ribcage. It was more like a tie since we both ended up on the floor. But man! I can't see how I freakin' survived that psycho the first time around. He's so insanely powerful and he soaks up damage like a tank."

Everyone was now staring at Ichigo with a mix of shock and amazement.

"Kurosaki, there is something seriously wrong with you if you can talk about a fight with a man like that in such a bored tone," said the Quincy as he delicately pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose with a single finger. Both Chad and Inoue nodded their heads in agreement.

"Ah, lay off guys. So, what did I miss in class? Anything that might come up on a test?" The rest of the conversation was filled with idle banter and the average "he said she said" high school drama until it was time to go to their next class which happened to be P.E. Little did they know, but their lives were about to get more and more interesting.

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Gym class started off quite ordinary with the guys and girls splitting up to their respective locker rooms to dress out. They all met as a group on the basketball/volley ball courts as usual and awaited the arrival of their teachers. Everyone quieted down in respect as their gym teachers approached from the main building.

"All right guys. Give me 6 laps around the track," said the first instructor Uzumaki Naruto. He had to nearly yell above all the groans that followed in order to continue, "Kurosaki-san I need to talk to you in private. Please come here."

"Hai, Hai Uzumaki-sensei," answered Ichigo as he lightly jogged over to stand next to the teachers.

"We've received a new teacher Kurosaki. He wants to head his own class of… 'Real men who depend on their own strength to get shit done.' I believe is how he put it."

_…sounds vaguely familiar…_ thought Ichigo as he nodded his head in understanding.

"Now apparently he says that the two of you have met before, and he specifically requested you to be his…ugh… what did he call it? Oh, that's right his 3rd seated officer in charge of his division," rambled Uzumaki-sensei as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Any way, you should just wait for him here. He should be along shortly."

"Hai sensei. I understand," said the bleach-haired young man formally. As soon as Uzumaki was a safe distance away Ichigo slouched against the wall and slid down to the ground. As he sat with his back to the wall it was only a matter of time before he dozed off for another short nap.

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He was awoken some time later by a dull something prodding him in the chest and a deep gravelly voice saying," Oi, Ichigo! Wake the hell up! You have some explanations to give me."

A completely contrasting voice sent his sluggish and almost unaware brain a query as well, "Yeah, why did ya run from Ken-chan today? Your guys' fight was just getting good!"

Adrenaline immediately shot through his body. There was only one person in all his experience who was referred to as "Ken-chan." Slowly opening his right eye just a tiny bit his worst fear was realized. Zaraki Kenpachi the psychopathic, eye patch wearing, giant of a killer was towering over him while prodding him in the chest with the business end of a wooden practice sword.

'…_Wait a minute…where's the pink midget?_Thought Ichigo who was now on the verge of hyperventilating.'

"Ichi! Wake up'n play!" came the words a split second before a child sized palm was planted into the completely unaware left side of his face. _ 'Ah… that's one question down.'_ Thought Ichigo as tick marks seemed to multiply on his forehead the longer the hand remained.

Finally, temper pushing aside common sense, Ichigo jumped to his feet yelling and pointing his finger in Zaraki's face. "THE HELL?! ARE YOU STALKING ME YOU CYCLOPTIC BASTARD?!"

Kenpachi stared at the offending digit with little to no emotion on his face besides the curving of any eyebrow. The finger was soon removed by Ichigo who was afraid of becoming a 4 fingered freak.

"No dumbass. There is a difference between 'seeking out' and 'stalking.' I'm here to help you so you can help me. How about it? It's like a trade… I help with your combat skills and you help me talk to my zanpakuto? Sounds like a good deal, eh?" explained the giant.

"Ok, let me get this straight. So basically you want to beat the shit out of me on a daily basis and somehow I am supposed to feel some sort of gratitude because of it? I am supposed to be so overjoyed that I'm gonna find a way for you to talk to your abused zanpakuto? BOKI! What kind of a deal is that shit? I get nothing out of it besides more bruises."

Kenpachi's face immediately darkened with a scowl and he leaned forward suddenly and, not so delicately, crashed against Ichigo's head with a sickening thud. The 11th squad captain remained unfazed, while Ichigo nearly ended up on the floor in a state of unconsciousness. "Don't be a little bitch about this and make it harder for me to ask than it already is. This is how I ask for help. You should think of it as a fucken honor. This is the first, and the last time, I have ever asked for anyone's help. And I emphasize anyone. So. Shut. Your. Damn. Mouth."

Ichigo with a gulp replied, "H-hai zaraki…?"

"Cut the ass kissin. It's not becoming of you. Taichou or Zaraki-taichou will do. As of right now you are the 3rd seated officer of the 11th squad's Karakura branch. Congrats."

"Uh, sure thanks, but I kind already have a training offer from the Vizards. I was going to accept so that I can learn to control my inner hollow and all that good stuff. He's been trying to take over a lot lately. Once when I was fighting that Yammy guy, and then again when I fought Grimjaw. I really need to get him taken care of."

"Tch. Are these Vizards strong?" asked Kenpachi.

"Well yeah. They are really strong now that I think about it actually," replied Ichigo after a moment or two of thought.

"Good. Then I can just come along and try to squeeze a few fights out while you learn to suppress your hollow and all."

"Ok that's cool and all, but what about school? We still have like," the substitute shinigami checks his cell phone, "like over an hour left."

Kenpachi with a wolfish grin replies, "I'm a teacher now remember? Shouldn't be a problem at all. Now where is this place we have to go to? I want to get started."

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Author's Notes:

Wow may have been a bit rushed at the end there… my brain doesn't function so well on 1-2 hours of sleep a night. I am just about ready to crash… must answer reviews…..

Seiryuuchan: I have always thought that Kenpachi still wasn't fighting full on with Ichigo even at the end. It is in the good (or is it evil?) captain's personality to lower himself to his opponent's level so that he can prolong the fight. It's just how he likes to fight: the more blood and cutting then the better. I see the two becoming very good friends through their training just because they are both very battle-driven personalities. They basically go fight to fight just to test their power, and if someone manages to beat them and not kill them, then they do all in their power to grow stronger. I mean just look at how Kenpachi went from saying "borrowing power from your zanpakuto is for loser bitches who can't rely on their own power in battle" to finally asking for its name just after his battle with Ichigo. Also, notice how hard Ichigo goes in his training with the vizards just cause he got his ass kicked by grimmjaw…

Ralf Jones: hmm. Pairings I already have a good idea of what I'm gonna do, but I'm open to suggestions as long as you just don't say,"OMG dood. You should make this zarakixmatsumotoxhinamori," I need good cause in order to make it somewhat believable. D so far what I'm gonna do is TatsukixIchigo and KenpachixUnohana. Not set in stone as of yet, but I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna pull this off.

Please leave reviews on anything. Criticism very much welcomed since I need to work on many things…

Just reminder for everyone: I am keeping this yaoi free…. It's just not how I roll :)


	4. Chapter 4: Vizard vs Shinigami Oh Noes

Chapter 4 Teaser

"So this is the place, eh?" asked the infamous 11th squad captain Zaraki Kenpachi as soon as the battered looking warehouse came into view.

"Yeah, there's no mistaking it. The sheer amount of reiatsu oozing out of the place is probably them trying to make up for my horrible lack of talent in the area…" said the bleach-headed shinigami while gritting his teeth at the almost insult.

"Hooo, even I can feel it now. With that much reiatsu stuck in one place I'm surprised that the building is still standing. I'm almost tingling in anticipation now! I'm really gonna cut loose on the first person I see in there," said Kenpachi, his voice picking up momentum as his bloodlust rose. His visible eye was wide open and almost seemed blood shot. His hands, balled into fists, were hanging on either side of his large body and seemed to shake with barely contained excitement. Everything about the man spoke of enthusiasm and anticipation of a level that transcends simple obsession. From the beginning he was the type of man who fought to live and lived fight. It's just who he was. Few could stand before his awesome power. Even less could comprehend it.

"Knock yourself out. Just don't kill anyone Kenpachi! They might not want to keep me around if the person I bring into their domain happens to kill one of their own," came the shinigami substitutes' tense reply. The teenager's jaw was set in rigid determination. His eyes were hard like diamonds; anything caught in their gaze would be cut, ground, and shaved into nothingness. His will was iron. No, it was something infinitely stronger; something completely unwavering, solid to the core. Ichigo was intent on a goal. He had a goal and that's all that a man such as himself needs. His chosen path is that of power on the battlefield, and such is his personality that, as long as he has a goal in mind, his potential is unlimited. Forever meeting the bar of expectations and constantly raising it up and into the endless sky. Where will the bar stop? Nobody knows… not even Ichigo.

The two titans of pure, god-like, and unadulterated strength stepped into the cool embrace of the seemingly abandoned warehouse.

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The door noisily slid shut. It was hardly noticed by the two central beings in the room such was their focus.

"Good job finding this place, Ichigo. But, it seems that you have brought a visitor. You were supposed to come alone," spoke a voice high above them in disappointment. As Kenpachi's gaze lifted towards the origin of the voice he noticed that there were 7 other beings besides the speaker. He may not be able to track or locate someone by reiatsu, but that doesn't mean that the 11th division captain has no ability to sense strength. No, Kenpachi senses strength with his finely honed instincts. Just glancing at a few of the Vizards made his instincts scream in ecstasy and the hairs on the back of his neck bristle in glee. _These bastards are strong. The whole lot of them! This is turning out to be better than I could have ever expected!_ Such were the thoughts of Zaraki Kenpachi, the immortal.

"Visitor, eh? Don't assume I came here just to talk. I'm here for my own reasons," said the 11th squad captain, his face hidden in shadows.

"Ara? What reasons are those? Are you havin' hollow problems as well?"

"Hollow problems?," repeated Kenpachi tonelessly. "Why would I be having those? If I have an inner hollow he probably cheers me on. I'm here to pick a fight!"

"Hey dickhead, are you stupid? Why would you pick a fight with us of all people?" interrupted a short vaizard with pale blond pigtails.

Kenpachi's face twitched in irritation. _The hell?__ Did a 12 year old girl just call me a dickhead?_ "Fight time Yachiru go find somewhere to watch. Oi! You with the fang front and center."

The diminutive vizard's face quickly grew crimson. No one makes fun of her fang and lives! "It's part of my womanly charm you freak!"

"Womanly? You're about 10 years too early for that," said Zaraki smugly. "Charm? That's ridiculous. It's bullshit even. If you don't like the things I say about you then bring it! Otherwise, shut the fuck up, and let the adults do the talkin', stupid gaki."

With a roar, reminiscent of a wounded hippo, the short vizard charged the eagerly awaiting shinigami captain. As the two locked blades Kenpachi looked at the blondie over the sparking steel.

"Oh, did I say something to anger Ms. Fang the toy poodle?"

Breaking the deadlock the vizard began to shout a word for ever swing she made. "My. Name.Is. Hiyori!

"Well, Hiyori, if you have time to be talkin' then you're not fightin' hard enough! Come on is this all you got?"

Growling, Hiyori pressed the attack as hard as she could in her current form, but nothing made it even close. The man's reaction speed was insane, and his sword arm was most swift. She tried everything: altering the angles of her attacks, unpredictably changing speeds, and mixing up the types of attacks she used. Yet, it seemed useless as his heavily chipped blade always nullified her attacks. After a failed slash to the man's right side, Hiyori flash stepped behind the giant thinking to catch him off guard with a quick stab.

Kenpachi knew that the girl was somehow holding back. He was initially planning to take his time and be patient, but Zaraki Kenpachi is not a man known for his patience. He watched the blade out of the corner of his eye as it dove for his unprotected skin. Yes, if he tried he could get his zanpakuto around for a parry, but where's the fun in that? Instead, he opted to merely grab the blade with his bare left hand. Ignoring the biting pain from his hand the psychopath yanked the blade off course and in the process pulled Hiyori in closer. With surprising speed and coordination Kenpachi planted his left foot and pivoted around bring his nameless zanpakuto around to stab the helplessly falling Hiyori right through the chest.

From Hiyori's point of view she knew she was in trouble the moment that the captain grabbed onto her blade and began to pull. She was no match for the man's pure brute strength. Instead of fighting against the flow she threw herself towards the direction he was pulling her in, while arching her back to its fullest extent. The point of Kenpachi's sword missed her by a hair's breadth, but she couldn't avoid the serrated edge and received a rather wicked gash horizontally along her lower back.

Despite avoiding being skewered, Hiyori knew she was still in grave danger. After all, standing toe to toe with a blood thirst driven killer, while he holds your weapon hostage, is not a favorable position to be in. The cycloptic killer instead surprised her by talking, instead of ramming his zanpakuto up to the hilt into her chest. "I know your holdin' back. The whole 'hide my true strength' bit is growing old. The only way I'm gonna let go, with you still alive, is if you promise to fight me at full strength. I wanna see the power that's drawin Ichigo to you guys. The power that he wishes to obtain."

"Fine," said Hiyori resignedly as she watched the man's blood run down the blade of her zanpakuto and drip down to form a puddle between them, "I'll admit that you're strong. Just don't regret asking to see my hollow mask."

Kenpachi laughed hysterically, "Oh, I won't. For this I think I'll be takin' the eye patch off." Resting his left hand on the clasp of his eye patch he waited for Hiyori to make her move.

The increase in her power, as she pulled a hollow mask out of nowhere, nearly made his jaw drop.

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Ichigo and Shinji, the dutch styled vizard, both shook their heads in exasperation as they watched Kenpachi initiate the fight with an irate Hiyori. When Ichigo finally looked up he saw that Shinji had fixed him with a serious stare.

"So, Ichigo I assume that you've decided to join us seeing as you showed up.

"Not a chance!" said Ichigo resolutely.

Shinji nearly fell on his face in surprise before he recovered by asking, "The…. Then why are you here?"

"Simple enough. I'm going to force you to teach me how to suppress my inner hollow," said Ichigo with confidence.

"Oh, and how do you think you'll accomplish that?"

"I'm gonna beat it out of you!" exclaimed Ichigo as he popped out of his living body and emerging in his usual shinigami robes.

Wasting no time Ichigo shot forward, toward Shinji with Zangetsu trailing off to the side. Shinji kicked his own Zanpakuto up off the ground and caught the sword by it's sheathe. Leaping forward, to meet the shinigami's charge, Shinji drew his blade in preparation for the ensuing clash. Shinji and Ichigo meet in an explosion of sparks before pushing off in exchange for more space to set up their next set of attacks. The two took to the air in exchange for even more space to give to their jousting competition. An uneducated observer may believe the battle to be fierce but, to anyone worth their salt in a fight, it was obvious that neither Shinji nor Ichigo were trying very hard to hurt each other. Their fight was slightly interrupted when the southern end of the warehouse erupted in reiatsu.

"Woah. Guess Kenpachi took the eye patch off. Hope your friend is up to the challenge. He is quite scary when he takes that damn thing off," commented Ichigo as if he had not a care in the world.

"Hiyori seems to have gotten serious as well. I'm not worried for her at the moment… but, Ichigo… you need to release your hollow or we won't even consider teaching you anything," stated Shinji softly.

"…and why not?" asked the orange haired shinigami in confusion.

"Merely because we need to see the power of your hollow. Nothing more nothing less. If we don't know how powerful your hollow powers are then we would rather just not take the risk of letting a weak person join. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link after all."

"I'm a captain level shinigami," said Ichigo in exasperation. "How much stronger do I have to be to join?"

"Weren't you listening? We aren't testing your strength as a shinigami. We're testing your strength as a damn hollow! Captain level this, captain level that! Who cares. All I know is that, as a hybrid, I am much stronger than your 'captain level' shinigami in soul society," stated the blond-haired blue-eyed vizard in a hushed and dangerous tone.

"Is that so?"asked Ichigo incredulously. "I haven't seen any evidence for this supposed power that you speak of."

"Wow, I didn't expect you to be this stupid or stubborn. Nor did I expect that I would be giving you a demonstration on my power as a vizard…" as he spoke Shinji slowly extended his hand up above his head as if to grab the edge of his hat. Instead of pulling on his hat he pulled an Egyptian style hollow mask out of thin air and over his own face. "Prepare yourself Kurosaki Ichigo. Cause I'm gonna BEAT the hollow out of you!" Shinji's voice was now overlaid with a sort of creepy sounding warble that caused the hairs on the back of Ichigo's neck to rise up.

The speed of Shinji's sudden rush surprised the hell out of Ichigo and he was hardly able to get Zangetsu up in time to block the sidelong blow. The next thing to come to his attention was the fact that the masked man's attack sent him slamming into the barrier enforced wall.

"Why are you hesitating," inquired Shinji as Ichigo picked himself up off the floor where he had fallen. "You aren't even using your Ban Kai. What's wrong?"

"Nothin's wrong," Ichigo was having a hard time talking through his gritted teeth, "I just don't feel like showing you my Ban Kai."

"Then you're even more stupid then I originally thought. You stand no chance against me in your current form." As if to prove his point Shinji blurred out of sight and reappeared in front Ichigo. Before the shinigami could react the masked vizard hit Ichigo in the stomach with a super-powered uppercut sending him straight up into the air. Ichigo tried to turn in mid air to face his opponent, who he thought was still on the ground, only to realize that the vizard had appeared above him preparing a vicious looking axe kick. The force of the kick sent Ichigo back down to earth like a ping pong ball creating a minor explosion of destroyed concrete and dust.

_Shit that __fucken__ hurt haven't been hit that hard since __Grimmjaw__…but I can't go Ban Kai. __Everytime__ I do the hollow tries to take over._ Thought Ichigo as he slowly and agonizingly picked himself up off the shattered concrete of the 10 foot wide crater. His body felt like it was broken in a hundred places, and blood was leaking into his eyes causing them to sting.

Watching the shinigami raggedly pick himself up off the ground Shinji realized something. "You're afraid, aren't you? What is it that might scare the mighty Kurosaki Ichigo? What could the bold invader of Soul Society fear?" He now had the orange-haired shinigami's complete and undivided attention. "Many say that you are fearless. You stormed the very gates of seireitei, defeated 2 fukutaicho and 2 taicho level opponents, and achieved Ban Kai in 3 days while under extreme pressure." Ichigo's brow was now knit in anger, his teeth clenched in frustration. _Bastard's dead accurate._

"I hate it," growled Ichigo through his clenched teeth.

"Ara? What is it exactly that you hate?" asked Shinji in a leading manner.

Glancing off to the side, the teenager grudgingly admitted, "I hate losing control. I can't stand not having control over my own body."

"Ah, so the young hero has control issues," smirked Shinji, "and of course when you say 'someone' you mean your hollow right? Interesting. Well, I have a proposition for you. All I ask is that you lose control just this one last time, and if you do that then we, the Vizards, will teach you how to surpress your hollow. Hell, we will even teach you to harness your hollow powers like we do and allow you to join our ranks if it's strong enough. What do you say?"

"How do I know you can uphold your end of that bargain," asked Ichigo distrustfully as he propped himself up using Zangetsu as a walking stick.

"Baka! That should be blaringly obvious. Do I look possessed to you? Honestly man, use your brain."

"Well, here goes nothing…" spoke Ichigo before willingly relinquishing control to the ever present hollow in the back of his mind.

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Author's Notes:

Ok, so there is the full chapter 4 sorry for the wait I don't have any excuses. I actually had to cut this one down a bit for it to make better sense. I don't want to mislead anyone with the title but this fic will have 2 main characters so to speak. Ichigo and Kenpachi of course and they will grow to be good friends in their own way. The romance is coming soon don't worry. I just have to get everything started before I introduce that element in. Warning! Romance is my great weakness…. So yeah. Anyways the pairings so far is IchigoxTatsuki and either KenpachixUnohana or KenpachixSoifong. I like the idea of both of those. So its either opposites attract or it's the tough guy tough girl relationship kinda thing. Well, well time to respond to reviews.

Ralf Jones: yeah sorry I knew that kenpachi's zanpakuto is stuck in shikai, but there can be two separate release modes on a zanpakuto I though. For instance think back to Tousen's two different shikai attacks or to urahara's own double shikai attacks. that's actually what I was trying to get at :). Thanks for the help though man seriously.

CO Raven: I sent you a private message about the translating. Get back to me if you can please!

So uh yeah everyone RR(and by everyone I mean like the 4 people who have this on story alert so far D)


	5. Chapter 5: Finally you talk

"Oi, come back here! Quit runnin' like some pathetic bitch!" exclaimed Zaraki Kenpachi as he gave chase to the masked little girl. Unknown to Kenpachi, he was actually being lured to a less crowded and more suitable area to continue fight.

Seeing the opening to the basement Hiyori dashed through it and down the stairs. The staircase was dark but opened up abruptly into a huge lit underground cavern. After a short distance from the base of the stairs Hiyori stopped and waited for the 11th squad captain to catch up. She didn't have to wait long, or try very hard to notice his arrival. In fact, a person would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to even stand a chance to miss the explosion that Zaraki Kenpachi created upon landing.

Kenpachi was far past the talking stage by now, and with a roar of demonic laughter he lunged toward Hiyori his zanpakuto leading the way for a stab. The attack was blindingly fast, yet Hiyori easily managed to slip her own blade underneath the large man's blade and angle it up harmlessly away from her body. One step forward and she was easily within his guard, and she decided to let the man know, in no uncertain terms, about his mistake. She cut him deeply from his right hip up to his left shoulder with a lightning fast slash of her zanpakuto. The would made the captain falter and stop himself from falling by using his sword as a support.

Thinking him finished Hiyori sheathed her blade and turned to walk away. She obviously didn't know why he was known as the Immortal, and had no warning before a jagged-edged blade raked another nasty cut along her shoulder blades.

"Stop screwin' around. You're not gonna get rid of me with a tiny cut like this. So far I'm winnin'. I have more cuts in that you do," said Zaraki as if off-handedly commenting on the score of a sports game.

Hiyori's answer came in the form of an over-charged cero. The cycloptic captain tried to block it with his blade, but astonishingly was overpowered. He was sent careening through the air and into the sheer rock wall of the cavern. Burned and bleeding, Kenpachi exploded back out of the rubble to continue the fight as eagerly as before his injuries. Afterall, he IS Zaraki Kenpachi 11th squad captain and probably the most insanely tough son of a bitch you'll ever meet.

Finally after 8 cero blasts, 15 newly formed craters, countless cuts, and what seemed like gallons of blood later the 11th squad captain could hardly stand. His vision was hazy and there was constant ringing in his ears. He was on the verge of blacking out, but not through any weakness of his own. No, it was because of all the rips, tears, and holes in his body. It was because there was more of his blood on the floor and walls than there was flowing through his veins.

_Ugh. I've never been this out classed before. The power__gap is huge even though I took my eye patch off. She's just __playin__' with me._

_**So what?**_

_Great, _thought the wounded man shaking his head for concentration. _Not only do I hear ringing, but now I can add voices to the list. What else? Tiny life-like figures of people I know giving me advice?_

The voice issued a faintly high-pitched and darkly amused bout of laughter.

_**A mere voice?**__** How about I give you a bit of my power, and then we**__** can see if I am a 'mere voice.**_

_I only fight under my own __steam,__ Pal. Accepting help from others is weakness. Wait, why am I __talkin__' to an imaginary voice? Maybe everyone's right and I really am off my rocker…_

_**Tch**__**. There you go with that imaginary bullshit again. Taking' power from me is the same as using your own, if you catch my drift.**_

_'__fraid__ I'm not __catchin__' it. Why don't you just tell me already? Skip the games._

_**Very well.**__** I am your **__**zanpakuto**____**Up until now I had given up hope of even being able to talk to you**____** You're **__**reiatsu**__** is always so cranked that I can never get through, but now since you are on the edge of death it seems we can communicate. You seriously need to learn to listen, boki.**_

_…I'v__e been __tryin'to__ talk to you__ for months now…_

_**…Yeah, sorry about that **__**I**__**'ve been sleeping. That's what **__**I**__** do when you're not being destructive.**_

_Since when am I not being' destructive!?_

_**Whatever, we can talk about this later. I'll give you a good chunk of my own power for one last attack. Better make do **__**cause**__** I don't feel like dying yet.**_

As if waking from a dream Zaraki opened his eyes. A new kind of power ripped through his body giving him strength and clearing his mind. The power was intoxicating. It was ecstacy, beyond imagination.

Pushing himself up, Kenpachi could feel the energy searching for a way out of his body. He let it all and out and found himself in a vortex of reddish-gold reiatsu. The leading edge of his aura physically manifested in the form of a broken shield extremely reminiscent of a human skull.

Kenpachi locked eyes with hiyori and stated, "It's time to draw this baby to a close," as he started off towards the little girl in a blinding sprint.

_This power… it's completely different from whatever he was using before... __Thought the __vizard_

Not taking any chances Hiyori charged up her strongest cero yet. After releasing it, she watched expectantly as it sped off on a direct intercept course with the empowered shinigami captain. She stared in shock as he seemingly cut through the cero like a hot knife through butter, parting it into two halves while never ceasing his charge. Hiyori was starting to panick now. _How did he get so strong? __Where does it come from?_

Looking up she saw that the devil man was only seconds away. She could already feel the heat of his aura against her skin as it seemed to burn the atmosphere around him. Thinking desperately she put as much reiatsu as possible in the short amount of time behind her next swing hoping it would be enough to at least stop the attack.

Their swords clashed in a blinding flash of light. When the light cleared they were standing facing each other with locked swords. Kenpachi was pushing down and Hiyori had both her hands reinforcing the back of her unreleased zanpakuto holding him off. For a second it seemed like a draw, but then Hiyori's blade finally broke through Kenpachi's with a blast of pure energy. She watched in horror as blood seemed to explode from Kenpachi as his left arm was nearly severed and he was sent rocketing back through the air and into the cavern wall.

Kenpachi fell forward from the new crater in the wall to black out while muttering, "…useless…"

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"My, my I guess I will have to be taking Zaraki-Taicho to my house for medical attention. He looks more like a piece of bloody meat now, and I don't want Soul Society having a fit over the death of a captain," said Urahara Kisuke with a wave of his fan.

"Go ahead and make sure he doesn't die Urahara-san. We really don't want Soul Society coming after us for his death," commented Rose as he turned back to walk away and see how Ichigo was faring against Shinji.

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a/n

Ok. This is the Kenpachi half of chapter 5 and it's the half I'm most worried about because I hope I'm not being tarded.

Thanks to CO Raven for being my beta and keeping me from making kenpachi a god too soon.(not that he isn't already Oo)


	6. Chapter 6: Propositions and Decisions

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Beating heart… check.

Massive feeling of sluggishness and an overwhelming ache starting from my head and spreading down to my toes? Check.

The fact that I have my toes and the rest of my digits still. Check.

'Ugh,' thought Kenpachi as he brought his less heavily bandaged right arm up to cover his eyes, 'I either went drinking with Kyoraku and the boys last night, or I just had a near-death experience… as a dead soul… not like there is much of a difference though.'

A few more minutes and the pulsing and pounding aches lessened ever so slightly allowing the tough grizzled Kenpachi to crack an eye open and cringe at the light. Heedless of his bodies tumultuous state the giant of a man swung his legs over the edge of the bed he was laying on and sat up to his full height. He nearly doubled over on instinct when the severed muscles of his left torso screamed their protest. A resigned growl was the only outward sign of discomfort as the captain of the 11th division scanned the room he had awoken in. Oddly enough someone was already waiting for him… or rather, HAD been waiting for him. Urahara Kisuke was nestled in a nearby love chair taking a nap as drool leaked out of the corner of his mouth.

Kenpachi's lone eye narrowed to a slit. He had never thought very highly of the former 12th division captain. He was too frivolous and happy all the time. Not enough hacking, slashing, or brutality of any kind. So in other words: boring.

A grunt and a heave later Kenpachi was walking under his own power toward the door. Who was he to care if the bandages laced over his chest had begun to stain a deep red? This was the kind of shit that made you tough. As he was reaching for the door a sing-song voice called out, "Captain-san! I wouldn't recommend leaving just yet. Your wounds aren't nearly healed. You won't be able to last another half hour at this rate. Just look at you… You're starting to leak blood everywhere."

That cruel lone eye turned around to meet Kisuke's playful gaze. "I don't have time for this shit. I need to get stronger. I MUST get stronger. I have so many people to pay back."

"Strength? Is that truly your goal? Or perhaps it is your road which leads to the goal? Hmm?" posed the quirky man with raised eyebrows.

"The fuck are you askin' stupid questions like that for? Does it matter one way or another?"

"Of course it matters Taicho-san. Indulge me."

Kenpachi attempted a snort of disdain, but was only rewarded with a fresh wave of pain tearing through his head. His nose seemed to be stopped up by blood clots. Great. In irritation the 11th division captain decided to play the exile's stupid little game. "If anything strength is my path. My goal would be to fight as many strong people as I could before dying to the strongest one I had ever met. There. What do you think of that?"

Half hidden behind his silly fan Urahara's face suddenly became more serious. Was the man bipolar? "That is good that you are being honest with me, captain. If that is indeed your goal, your dream if I may be so bold, then the next logical question to ask yourself is: What is the best way of achieving the strength you require to reach that final battle?"

"Easy enough. I cut, slash, and hack as many of the strong one's as I can until I finally run into one of the REALLY strong fuckers. Then I go down in a blaze of glory. End of Kenpachi, end of story."

From behind his waving fan the blond haired exile's eyes turned to slits. "And if it were possible to become strong enough to beat that 'really strong fucker?' If you were able to defeat that one, and then keep fighting until an even stronger opponent presents itself… What would you say to that possibility?"

"Is that an offer, Mr. Looney?" asked the cycloptic captain suspiciously. After all, what motive did Urahara Kisuke have to help a seemingly barbaric person such as himself?

"Yes, Kenpachi of Zaraki. It would be." Kisuke's entire countenance, save for the frivolous fan, was now completely serious.

Making a quick U-turn Kenpachi strolled back to the bed, laid down with his eyes closed, and spoke, "I need time to think."

SCENE CHANGE! With Ichigo…

Ichigo awoke feeling like he was wrapped in a cocoon. He was hardly able to move his fingers and toes, and his head was firmly strapped into place. What he could see was a fake sky much like the one in Urahara's training ground under his shop. After a few moments of much wriggling, struggling, and a fair bit of pain from a few mysterious wounds Ichigo heard a voice.

"Are you awake?" Ichigo recognized it as Shinji's voice.

Ichigo was pleased to find that his jaw was not hindered at all. "Yeah. Why am I tied down and what happened after I gave up control?"

"Before I answer that I need you to answer a single question for me. If I release you from your bonds… will you promise to never use your powers against a fellow Vaizard? Will you give me your unbreakable word?" Shinji's voice was deadly serious at this point. It almost sounded as if he were wary of Ichigo somehow.

"What if I'm attacked…" began Ichigo before Shinji cut him off harshly.

"Your word. No matter what the circumstances we DO NOT fight each other. When you become a Vaizard you join the family. Family doesn't kill family." Cold, hard steel lay behind that voice.

Scrunching his eyebrows up as much as possible considering the strap that ran across his forehead Ichigo decided to voice his approval. "I give you my word, no my vow, that I will never raise a hand or blade against a fellow Vaizard. Now, what happened?"

Silence for a handful of heartbeats. "After you gave control over to your hollow we were forced to use extreme methods in order to contain you. These methods forced you into unconsciousness. The hollow that dwells within your soul is one of immense strength. It was only the second Vastolord level hollow we Vaizard have ever seen within a person. It was also just about the strongest Vastolord level hollow any of us have seen, either within a person or not. We had no idea if it would be yourself or your co-inhabitant who had control when you woke up."

"Great. So that means it's going to be a bitch to suppress right?"

"Yes. It will have considerable resistance to any attempts to suppress it, but we aren't aiming for suppression. We want to teach you to subjugate your inner hollow and take its immense powers for your own. That will be even harder, but if you can pull it off then it will be worth the risk."

Ever the man on a mission Ichigo hardened his resolve and immediately responded, "Let's do it."

Out of sight Shinji sweat dropped. "Are you kiddin' me man? Just like that and you're that sure? This could easily kill you."

"I need to become stronger. If this will increase my abilities that dramatically then yes. I won't die until I've completed my goal so you don't need to worry about me failing."

With a sigh the blond Vaizard walked forward and undid the straps holding Ichigo in place and beckoned him. "Come on. Let's get started."

A/N

Short chapter because I am just getting back into the swing of this story, and also because I am whipping up an actual plot for the rest of the story. I don't want to get too far ahead without cementing the facts into place. Big thanks and huge shout to my beta/support CO Raven. That dude has seriously given me more help and inspiration than a barrel full of… well, anthing. Thank you Raven for bugging me all those months while I was being an ass hole.


	7. Chapter 7: Hard Headed

As Kenpachi lay on his back, he began to do something that very few people back in Soul Society would ever believed him to be capable of doing. He thought about something that didn't involve depriving a person of their life or limbs.

This deal with Urahara sounded almost too good to be true. Scratch that. It was way too good to be true. He would get strength one way or another, whether it was through learning his Zanpakuto's name and abilities or otherwise. The fact of the matter was that he not only wanted it, but he wanted it now. The exile was doubtlessly using this to his advantage in some form or another. What Kenpachi had to decide for himself was whether that bothered him or not. On the whole he was the kind of person who disliked manipulation and dishonesty with a passion. Not that he was a goody two shoes hero or something like that, but because there was no fun in stabbing someone in the back unless they were foolish enough to show it to you on their own. Manipulating people into fighting your battles for you meant that you couldn't get the thrill of fighting personally, and dirty tricks took the challenge out of it with the fun soon to follow.

In Soul Society, Urahara Kisuke was a man known for his cunning and his ability of foresight. Just what could he be expecting to get out of this? Kenpachi wrestled with this question for a length of time before becoming frustrated at his fruitless search.

Though very clever and tactical on the battlefield when it is required of him, Kenpachi was not the sort of person who could think too deeply about boring issues such as political intrigue. It just isn't in the cards for the large man. Finally, he decided that he didn't care what the sandal hat wearing kook wanted out of him. Even if the exile was planning to use him, the track record showed that he'd get a few good fights out of it. The last time Ichigo had dealt with the shady shopkeeper, he'd ended up invading Soul Society, achieving both shikai and bankai over the course of a little more than a month. He just wanted to get stronger and have some great fights. That was all. He rolled over as best as he could onto his side and dozed off to take a nap.

Waking up for someone like Zaraki Kenpachi was somewhat like flipping a switch. The man simply just snapped his eyes open and he was ready for anything. It just came with the package of being a hard core warrior. Such was the case as he awoke from his post pondering nap. Something seemed off though. There was some kind of foreign presence in the room. 

Turning over quickly Kenpachi braced his right hand under his body and prepared to jump to action should the presence choose be a threat. The person in his room was not a threat. It was none other than Urahara Kisuke… again… and this time he was staring at the 11th division taicho with a large amount of concentration. Thankfully, he'd ditched the goofy look that was plastered on his face almost every hour of the day.



"I accept."

Kisuke seemed to break from his trancelike stupor and looked at Kenpachi as if it were the first time he had noticed the large man. "Ara, what was that?" the shopkeeper asked, holding a hand up to his ear as though Kenpachi hadn't said it loud enough the first time. Great. The goofy Urahara was back.

"I said I accept your proposition. I don't care what you will be gaining by helping me, but at this point I don't care. I just want strength," the cycloptic captain stated earnestly in his gravelly voice.

"Ah, I see." the exile responded, obviously not in a talkative mood unlike usual.

That little fact bugged Kenpachi for some reason. "So, uh, when do we start?"

Urahara's eyes again seemed focused on some far away time or place before cutting back to Kenpachi. "As soon as you are completely healed."

Kenpachi looked like he had just accidentally swallowed a mouthful of rotten worms. "What? I can train just fine right now!" he raged. Healing took time, and strength was something he wanted now.

Urahara just raised an eye brow and stated, "I won't waste my time training a person who doesn't have his usual mobility, or the use of his left arm."

"Bah! You just don't want to be beaten by an injured guy! pathetic," said the one eyed captain angrily.  
If the exile's attention had been elsewhere a moment ago it sure as hell wasn't anymore. "Do you plan on taking that back, Zaraki-san?"

"Hell no! I stand by what I said. You're afraid," Kenpachi stated obstinately.

"Fine then, it appears that someone needs to be taught a lesson. Pick up your zanpakuto and follow me Zaraki-san." Kisuke stood up and walked out the room and down the hall towards the back of his shop. Kenpachi shrugged his uninjured shoulder, grabbed his Zanpakuto, and followed the man to wherever he was headed. Who knows? This might actually be fun.



After following several hallways and several right and left turns they arrived at a rather unassuming set of stairs. Down the stairs went Urahara with Kenpachi in tow. Kenpachi was starting to be reminded of the underground cavern that had been beneath the Vaizard's base of operation. His hunch turned out to be correct as he suddenly walked into a large seemingly outdoor space. Hell, there was even a sky and sun way up in the air. Kenpachi just assumed it was an illusion of some kind devised by the crafty excaptain.

Without a word Urahara kept walking and Kenpachi silently followed as he checked and tightened his bandages as well as he could in preparation for the fight. There was no telling just how powerful Urahara might end up being. Suddenly the exile stopped in the middle of a large flat area of space. Kenpachi came to a halt about 10-15 feet away. It looked like this was where the rumble would take place.

Without turning around Urahara began to talk, "So Zaraki-san, is this truly the only way to get through to you… mashing your face into the ground?"

"Well, if you put it that way… Yeah, it's just about the quickest and easiest way if you ask me. Might makes right. Now, are you gonna attack first or am I?" As Kenpachi finished his lips stretched into a wide sinister smile. This was going to be fun!

"Very well. Have it your way, but I think I'll be the one to start off this little 'training session.' I will limit the use of my abilities to the base form of my Zanpakuto. So in other words: I will not use any of my Zanpakuto's release forms, but everything else at my disposal is allowed."

Gripping his nameless Zanpakuto in his right hand tightly Kenpachi drawled, "Yeah yeah, whatever man. Let's get this goin." 

Urahara pivoted around on his left foot and faced the tall shinigami with his cane presented out in front of him with both hands. The hand that was on the handle slowly pulled and the handle came off revealing a Zanpakuto. The blade of his Zanpakuto was a shining silver, and the back was black. Next Urahara reached up in an all too familiar motion. It looked suspiciously like the time that fanged bitch had pulled her hollow mask out on him. Kenpachi crouched down low in preparation of what would come next should his suspicions prove accurate. Urahara swiped his hand down, and his hat solidified. Now it looked more like hollow bone than fabric. The reiatsu pressure coming off the man now sent Kenpachi skidding back.

"He is stronger than ol' Miss Fang back at the warehouse… not good," thought Kenpachi as he reached 

up to rip his eyepatch off. He was forced to stop when Urahara disappeared. Crap. He was coming. Since Urahara was right handed, he'd probably be coming from the right. Sure enough, Kenpachi caught sight of the exile only a couple steps away and moved to block. Benihime was inches from his right torso. Sparks flew and metal screamed in protest as the two Zanpakuto's crashed in a violent display of power. The earth beneath the 11th division taicho's feet shattered and buckled beneath the forces that wrestled for supremacy atop its surface. Despite having had set his feet firmly on the ground Kenpachi was finding himself being pressed back while Urahara's now yellow eyes seemed slightly bored.

"Weak," spoke Urahara just loud enough for Kenpachi to hear moments before a large explosion sent the scarred man rocketing pack into a large boulder.

As the cyclops got back up off the ground he was holding his left arm. Blood literally flooded through the now soaked bandage. The damn wound had opened up and then some judging by the river of his lifeblood that was streaming down his side and mixing with the dust on the ground. Instead of yielding to his obviously stronger opponent, Kenpachi dropped his weapon and stubbornly reached up to his eye patch and ripping it off. The warm secure feeling of his unleashed reiatsu refreshed him, if only slightly. Kenpachi took a glance at his wounds and the river of blood coming from him before estimating that he had a minute or less.

"Well, might as well get as much fun out of this as I can before I pass out!" Roared the one eyed killer as he released control to his berserker rage. Urahara was suddenly in his face, but this time Kenpachi's instincts had taken over and he was ready. Instead of blocking the powerful strikes the big man put on an impressive show of agility and speed as he dodged all of the attacks and sent back a few semi-effective counter attacks for good measure. None of his attacks were finding purchase on the newly revealed Vaizard while he was already sporting a half dozen shallow cuts along his chest and right arm.

As the fight progressed Kenpachi slowly, but surely, grew more and more sluggish while noticing that Urahara was merely toying with him. Finally, he was too slow to dodge. Kenpachi found Urahara's Zanpakuto buried to the hilt in his right shoulder forcing the brute of a man to drop his saw like blade down to the ground.

Head swimming, Zaraki Kenpachi fell to his knees with Urahara's Zanpakuto still firmly buried into his shoulder. He was barely conscious at this point and was suffering from a severe case of tunnel vision.

"Take this as a lesson, Zaraki Kenpachi-san. On Aizen's side of this war there are many opponents who are nearly as strong as me. Some are actually equal to or greater than me. Yet, I defeated you at your current peak power with nothing but my mask activated. To be honest, I never even took this battle seriously. I was toying with you. Now what if I had actually used my Shikai? Or maybe even my Bankai? You would surely have been turned to dust… Now, sleep, and when you awake, I need you to focus on 

healing up so that we may actually begin to do some real training instead of another pointless debacle such as this one."

In his mind, the giant of a man was strangely focused on every word his new teacher had just said. For the first time in his long life after death Zaraki Kenpachi truly understood just how weak he really was. The blackness consumed him and he fell forward onto his face when Urahara removed the blade from Kenpachi's shoulder.

When Zaraki awoke nearly a week later he found that his wounds were already well on their way to healing. He assumed that Urahara had worked a bit of his magic on him while he had slept, because the large cut that had nearly claimed his left arm was now just a large angry red scar. It was still very soft to the touch, and the muscles weren't quite healed all the way but at least his skin had closed up. A few more days and he might be almost at one hundred percent again. Standing up he decided to go bother the young ones to see if there was anything he could help with around the house. He had a growing hunch that he knew where Yachiru had been keeping herself busy all this time.

Scene Change. Ichigo's corner of the world

Falling on his newly masked face Ichigo felt a wave of accomplishment flow through his mind. He had managed to subjugate his hollow in his mental world and already he could feel the enormous new powers that he commanded coursing through him. Oh, he couldn't wait to test it out!

A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N A/N

A/N

Well. Here is mah new chapter. I will not be following Ichigo's training with the Vaizards besides the little scene here or there showing him as he masters something or some such. The true main character of this story is Zaraki Kenpachi. Next update a few new people will be introduced… well not new in the Bleachverse, but they will appear for the first time in this story lol.

Read and review please D


	8. Chapter 8: Women

Just as Kenpachi had thought, he found Yachiru being her normal overbearingly hyper self while hanging out with the local runts out in front of Urahara's shop. Deciding that it was better off that they felt the effects of the young girl's over-exuberant mind rather than him Kenpachi snuck by with a surprising amount of stealth for such a large, brutish man. As soon as he made it by he took off at full speed for Ichigo's school. He had a job to quit after all.

Twenty minutes later found Kenpachi entering the school through the front office door and bumping face to face(read: face to rock hard abs) with someone he never expected to find outside of Soul Society. It was a certain petite, short haired 2nd division captain. She was currently rubbing her nose after running into the walking brick wall that is Zaraki Kenpachi. He merely looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

After finding out that Kenpachi hadn't come in to his job as a Kendo teacher for nearly a week Soi Fon had decided to resume her search in another sector of Karakura. Turning around to leave she had let her mind wander and her eyes drooped to the floor when suddenly she had made contact with a brick wall. Wondering what it was she had bumped into as she had turned to leave the office her eyes kept going up and up until they settled on the semi-familiar face of her current target. It had been a long time since Soi Fon had talked to the giant of a man and every time she did she always made a fool of herself.

Kenpachi decided to break the silence in his gruff sort of way. "The hell you doin' here? … and quit starin' at me like that. It's givin' me the creeps."

Soi Fon's eyes widened and her skin turned red in indignation, and a much more foreign feeling, as she processed what the behemoth of a captain had said to her. "Don't you 'the hell?' me! I am only here because Yamamoto-soutaicho sent me to make sure you were ok after we lost communication with you almost a week ago!"

Kenpachi's only reaction was to act just surprised enough to show he really didn't care. "Eh, it's been almost a week already? Didn't realize I was knocked out that long…"

The second division captain nearly ground her teeth in irritation. "Knocked out? What are you doing over here?"

Kenpachi's response was irritatingly lacking in its eloquence. "Trainin."

Opening her mouth to no doubt fling a string of venomous words at her peer Soi Fon was interrupted. "Look. Before you go an' chew me out let me quit this retarded job and we can talk about it over a couple of drinks. Whada ya say?"

Kenpachi had no idea what motivated him to throw out that invitation, but after he realized what he had actually said (and who he had said it to) Kenpachi almost face palmed himself. However, instead of the expected sneer and disdainful decline Soi Fon actually look like she was putting thought into the matter at hand. Even Soi Fong herself was surprised by her eventual answer.

"Yeah, sure, sounds like fun." Kenpachi could already tell tonight was going to be an interesting night.



XxxX Scene Change XxxX

Several hours later finds the unlikely duo well on their way to being completely smashed. Soi Fon is nearly falling off her barstool laughing as Kenpachi relates his battle with the scary 'toy poodle.'

As he tells the story to her the large man can't believe that he is actually having such a blast drinking and hanging out with the supposed ice queen of Soul Society. The always composed and by-the-book 2nd Division Taicho had her fair share of funny stories and jokes. Not to mention that she had been in numerous kick ass battles that had Kenpachi enthralled from beginning to end. He might have to make her a permanent addition to his drinking buddy group, but if she was unwilling to join his almost nightly drinking group then he sure as hell was going to set a night aside so they could both cut loose with no one to watch. He decided to bring his full attention back to the conversation. "…and after I cut through good ol' Fang's overly charged cero it looked like she was about to piss her pants!" Finished the 11th division Psycho with a murderous chuckle making all the goons at the bar cringe in fear.

Wiping her eyes with one hand while she white knuckle gripped the counter for fear of falling over Soi Fon babbled, "An… an.. and then what?"

Kenpachi let out an overly dramatic sigh as he concentrated very suddenly on the bottom of his mug. "Got my ass kicked and was sent rocketing back into a stone wall."

Soi Fon, obviously not catching the drop in the atmosphere, let out a torrent of echoing laughs. After a few seconds she noticed Kenpachi still was still very serious and was now taking a long draught out of his large mug. Immediately she started to feel sorry for him. Most everyone in Soul Society either fears Kenpachi or respects him. Now, he was in a place where even 'toy poodles with dental problems' were beating him up mercilessly.

"That bad?" She asked quietly.

With a smack of his lips Kenpachi slammed his mug down as the world around him began to spin. "At first, but now I'm trainin' to get stronger than these guys so it's not so bad."

With sudden inspiration Soi Fon announced drunkenly, "Cooome on! Let'sh… getsh another…round! This is goin' on my expenshe tab from thoshe pricksh at Sssoul Sssociety anyway!"

Kenpachi perked up. "In that case, make it ten!"

The rest of the night was vague and hazy. All Kenpachi could remember was a lot of walking, a sense of vertigo, and a LOT of physical contact.

XxxX Next Morning XxxX



"Oh, my head…" groaned Kenpachi uncomfortably as he tried to get up to a sitting position, but he couldn't seem to get very far. Something was wrapped around both his right arm and his right leg. Looking down he almost expected to find them wrapped up in bandages like the last time he woke up with a pounding head ache. Nope. It was a very beautiful and very naked Soi Fon using his appendages as cuddle toys.

"Oh, fuck… not sure if I should congratulate myself or get a head start in case she becomes upset." Looking around the room they were in Kenpachi couldn't help but feel he had seen this room once before.

Suddenly the door opened and a little girl walked in. "Nii-san was that you coming home last night cause I thought I heard…" With big round eyes and a startled scream the little girl ran out of the room yelling, "DAAAADDDYYYY!"

Shortly after she disappeared a muffled, but disturbingly familiar, male voice could barely be heard proclaiming something about 'Yuzu-chan' and his 'manly chest.' Kenpachi held back a shudder.

Finally, when Isshin finally got a good grasp on the subject he burst into the room while pointing an accusing finger at the entangled couple. "What are you two doing in my son's room!"

"Tha hell? Isshin? Where you been man? I haven' heard from you in ages!"

"Kenpachi?! What are you doing here… with Soi Fon … naked …" Ichigo's bizarre father was then sent flying backwards through the air, propelled by a nosebleed of amazing proportions. Soi Fon chose this time to sit up and stretch while holding the sheets just above her cleavage for modesty's sake.

"Man, where am I?" Then she saw Isshin's unconscious body and his daughters. She frowned… that's weird. Then she felt the shift next to her and glanced down to her left. There was Kenpachi… in bed with her… while they were both completely naked. Not knowing what to think she simply just passed out again.

With a grumble Kenpachi ordered the kids to drag their father's carcass out while he got dressed. This was going to be a looooong day.

About twenty minutes later a decent Kenpachi was to be found crouching next to a bloody and very unconscious Kurosaki Isshin. The large man was poking the ex-taicho with the end of his sheathed Zanpakuto.

"Oi, dumbass. Wake the hell up. I aint got all day, ya' know."

Isshin groaned and rolled over onto his side while mumbling, "5 more minutes Masaki-chan. You were much to wild last night."

At this statement Kenpachi's right eyebrow began to tick violently. Never a good sign for anyone, at anytime. Kenpachi with a ticking eyebrow is something most people imagine will happen just moments before the world as we know it implodes destroying all forms of life. Instead of the End of Days 

happening Kenpachi just brought his Zanpakuto up over his head and then smashed it down onto Isshin's noggin. The clash caused a brand new wave blood to squirt haphazardly up into the air. Despite the possible concussion Kenpachi's brutal method somehow managed to rouse Isshin from his deep sleep.

Gingerly touching his head while keeping the most ridiculous pouting expression on his face Isshin asked, "Ittaiiii. Why are you here Kenpachi-san? More importantly why were you and Soi Fon using my son's bed in such a manner?"

Kenpachi didn't change the stony and completely apathetic look on his face as he answered, "First off, get that damned pansy look off your mug. Start acting serious. Geez, you were always way too silly."

While Isshin's body language or position didn't change in the least, his eyes seemed to sharpen considerably, "Answer the question, Kenpachi."

"Tcheh. I don't really remember much, but I was out drinkin' with Soi Fon. Last thing I clearly remember we were walkin' around after getting kicked outta the bar. After that I only kinda know what happened. It's all hazy, y'know what I mean?"

This prompted Isshin to rub his chin and nod sagely. "Ah, I see. Was it a one night stand, or something more?"

Kenpachi grumbled in irritation. "How the hell'm I supposed to know that? Do I look like the romeo type of guy?"

"Well, then. Hmm. I think it would be best to consult with Soi Fon-san herself on this subject. You should get her side of the story and compare. Communication is always a good thing," advised the ex-taicho wisely.

This suggestion caused Kenpachi to frown. Talking intimately was something that the 11th division killing machine was not accustomed to. In fact, he would rather throw himself upon his own Zanpakuto than have a heart to heart talk with a woman. Physical interaction is where his social skills lay… either the violent kind or the carnal kind. "What kinda lame-ass idea is that?"

Seeing the sour look on Kenpachi's face Isshin realized that he was too stubborn to do the deed willingly. It would take some kind of manipulation , or an act of the King, to make the bull-headed Cyclops have a heart to heart with Soi Fon. An idea suddenly popped into Isshin's head and his inner cupid was suddenly rubbing his hands together sneakily.

"Are you, Zaraki Kenpachi, saying that you are afraid to talk to a woman?" Asked Isshin with a dangerous glint in his eye.

Kenpachi's dubious expression quickly turned to his poker face. The poker face he wears just before murdering every single other player at the table because of a run of bad luck. The kind of look that 

calmly states, 'Say that again. I dare you.' Isshin obviously didn't get the implied message as he continued on.

"I always knew you were soft. Everyone in Soul Society thinks your some kind of bad ass killer type, but really on the inside you are just a huge softy who can't even handle a simple talk with a woman. Wonder who I should go tell first… Yoruichi could probably pass it on a long to say… Matsumoto? Yes, if she found out about his then it would undoubtedly spread…"

Kenpachi interrupted the man's rambling by slamming his hand into the wall and shouting, " Fine! I'll do it ya sneaky sonnuva bitch!" He promptly turned around and stormed up the stairs in order to confront one of his great inabilities: being intimate with a woman. Isshin just chuckled and shook his head as he watched the giant of a man ascend the stairs in a rage. So easy to manipulate.

SC

Zaraki strode down the hall with great determination, but upon reaching Ichigo's closed door he froze. What was he going to say? He had nothing, literally. Why was he so reluctant to talk to this woman? She was just on the other side of this door. All he had to do was open it, but… then what?

Poor Kenpachi never even had a chance to think of anything before the door opened to reveal a completely dressed and immaculate Soi Fon. He had a hard time meeting her eye to eye, something he had never had problems with before.

"Yes, what is it Zaraki-san?" Great. Completely cold and aloof. She must have reverted back to her ice queen status.

"I… uhh…" began the usually imperturbable 11th squad taicho. Since when has the feared Zaraki Kenpachi ever stuttered?

"You _what?_" Prompted the diminutive woman coldly. She clearly wasn't making this easy for the fierce Taicho.

Clearing his voice Kenpachi finally dredged up some back bone. "Let's talk about last night. That's what I'm sayin'." None too smooth, but the point was made.

Soi Fon was clearly surprised as she raised her eyebrows. "Oh? What about last night would you like to talk about? I figured that you would probably just go around acting like it never happened." Her tone was acidic by very nature.

Suddenly any insecurity that Kenpachi felt boiled away as his old friend rage surfaced. "Stupid woman. What makes you think I would do that?"

"Well, it's just typical of men like you. You hit it and quit it while never caring for the woman's feelings. It's why all of you are such pigs." Clearly the woman had had a bad experience or two.



Like the person he is Kenpachi just decided to rage away. "It's no fuckin' wonder, stupid broad! If it's this damned hard every time I can see why any sane man would just walk away! Man… I came up here to see your point of view and this is the kind of shit that I get? You can't blame us, lady."

Soi Fon was shocked and had to blink several times before she finally understood his words. He had come to talk! Coming out of her daze she chased after him as his long strides hungrily ate up the hallway floor.

Kenpachi was fuming. He was angry beyond belief. He takes a step out of the norm for once, and this is what he gets! Contempt and cold anger. Well, to hell with it anyway! Zaraki Kenpachi is not a man to be trifled with that way. He was broken out of his furious mental tirade by the sound of running feet. Ever the warrior on guard Kenpachi turned around expecting Soi Fon to be attempting to run him down in a fit of anger. What he got instead was a chest full of sobbing second division taicho.

She was whispered into his chest, "Don't go. I'm sorry."

Clearly awkward Kenpachi just patted her on the back and shoulders as she calmed down. This was definitely not something he had expected would happen during his talk with his fellow Taicho, even in his weirdest and wildest dreams. In an unexpected moment of insight Kenpachi decided to ask her what was wrong.

"What's with the pansy bawlin'?" Wait, that didn't sound right... thought the 11th division cyclops. Quickly he tried to make amends. "Ehh, what I meant was… What's wrong?"

Rubbing her eyes of tears Soi Fon looked up. "I'm sorry it's just that, in order to not get my hopes up, I had talked myself into thinking that you would just ignore the situation."

"Get your hopes up? I don't understand." Leave it to Kenpachi to be a total brick.

"You idiot. I've been alone for so long, ever since Yoruichi left me, and I don't think I could stand having my spirits broken again. That's why I'm always so distanced from everyone else. I'm afraid to get close again, but at the same time my distance is hurting me," she admitted somewhat reluctantly. Honestly, she was feeling helpless at the moment, as if she had absolutely no control over herself.

As if through a revelation from Kami-sama himself Kenpachi felt that he truly understood what she was talking about. It was similar in a way to how he had been before Yachiru had entered his life. Everything had been so bland and insignificant before she had arrived. He really had been a true killing machine back then. It wasn't until his first time meeting her that he had finally decided upon a goal for himself: To become the strongest. His visible eye focused back on the now and he looked at Soi Fon, really as if for the first time. "I think I understand, but why me? There are plenty of guys back at Soul Society who are better looking and better at relationships than I am."

Soi Fon began scrutinizing the fabric of Kenpachi's shirt as she thought of her answer. Finally she answered, "I guess… It would be because I've always admired your solitary strength. You are always just yourself no matter what anyone else says. You don't need anyone else and never depend on another. 

You make it look so easy! I've always wanted to ask you how you do it, to lend me some of your strength. I've just never been able to summon the willpower to get past my pride." Feeling that she had gone too far Soi Fon quieted down. The silence that lasted the next few seconds felt like eons to her. Suddenly Kenpachi spoke.

"You're wrong." There was certainty in his statement.

Soi Fon was not able to ask, and wasn't needed to as Kenpachi continued.

"You are wrong in thinking that I don't need anyone. If it weren't for a certain fukutaicho of mine I would have fallen years ago. I probably wouldn't have ever made it into Soul Society. Without Yachiru I would have crumbled before I had even found a purpose." His voice was as gentle as it ever got as he spoke this. The usual gravelly tone was spoken in an almost whisper. "This is probably the first time I've ever said it out loud, but it's been understood for a long, long time."

At this point Soi Fon was practically in awe. She had never heard the man speak much more than a sentence at a time before, and even then it mostly had to do with killing, or at the very least maiming, someone. To hear him talking in such a manner nearly sent chills up her spine. The silence lasted a full half minute, and just as Soi Fon was opening her mouth to reply a Hell's butterfly landed on her hand. Apparently the Soutaicho was recalling her and needed her to report back immediately. The emphasis on speed was very noticeable. She took a step back from the big man and straightened herself out a bit.

"Look, I have to go. Yamamoto-Soutaicho is waiting on my return, but I would like to continue this talk some other time, ok?" She sounded almost unsure of herself and not a little bit nervous.

Kenpachi grunted in what she assumed was the affirmative as he turned to walk away. He had been a little too open for his liking in the last few minutes and wanted to get back to his usual composure. He made a shooing gesture over his shoulder as he walked. "Better get back before the old man starts grumpin'."

Allowing herself a relatively large smirk before composing herself once again Soi Fon turned around and stuck her Zanpakuto out into the air and then stepped through the doors that appeared. Kenpachi hardly even glanced backwards. He figured that what comes will come, and that he should just concentrate on the here and now. For now, he had to heal his body so that he could attain new levels of strength and ability. He had people to kill, maim, and destroy after all.


	9. Chapter 9: 'The hell're you'

One week later, the cavern underneath Urahara's shop.

Kenpachi grunted and propped himself up with his Zanpakuto in order to keep himself from falling to his knees in exhaustion. Opposite him was a masked Urahara in all his glory.

In a warbly hollow type voice the exile spoke. "Good. I see no fear reflected in the blade of your soul, Zaraki Kenpachi. Now, we just need to break through that stubborn skull of yours." Urahara phased out of sight leaving Kenpachi wide-eyed and searching for the dangerous shinigami. The whistling sound of a high speed object ripping through the air quickly grabbed his attention. As he spun to address the oncoming assault Kenpachi hurriedly brought his Zanpakuto up in a vertical guard position with one hand. The sound of screeching metal on metal filled the air as Kenpachi successfully managed to block the dangerous attack.

"Careful, Kenpachi-san. Don't underestimate me or any other hybrid. We have transcended the power ceiling that traditional shinigami and hollow find hanging above their heads. For example, you should be holding that sword with both hands or else…" KABOOM! Kenpachi was sent crashing through three large rock outcroppings before finally coming to a stop. Almost instantly Urahara was standing above the large 11th division taicho one foot on his chest as he set the sharp edge of his Zanpakuto along Kenpachi's jawline. "You may end up dead."

Kenpachi nearly shuddered from the way Urahara sounded so cheerful and goofy as he ended his sentence.

"Get your lousy foot off me ya' stupid fuck." Groaned the humiliated and thoroughly worn out Zaraki Kenpachi.

"Ah, ah, ah Zaraki-san!" Admonished the odd exile as he wagged the pointer finger of his free hand back and forth. "You are staying exactly as you are. We will now meditate."

Kenpachi suddenly got a look on his face like someone had shoved a handful of raw human feces down his throat. "Ehhh?! Meditate? What's that got to do with anything? … and even if I wanted to HOW AM I GOING TO MEDITATE WITH YOUR SWORD AT MY THROAT!" Screamed the slightly unstable man as spittle flew from his mouth.

Urahara's yellow hollow type eyes narrowed behind his mask. "You will meditate because I tell you to, Zaraki-san. Remember that you are the one who needs MY help in order to not be so PATHETIC." This time it was Kenpachi's turn to narrow his eyes in anger. Urahara had just made his 'must maim' list. The uncomfortable silence stretched on for a couple heartbeats before Kenpachi broke his glare off while mumbling. "Someday, you're not gonna be too happy that you said a few of those things."

Urahara pretended he didn't hear the statement and proceeded to explain a few things to the prostrate Taicho. "I have purposely beaten you to the point of exhaustion in the hopes that your reiatsu level would drop considerably. This will hopefully be enough to allow you and your Zanpakuto to communicate since your usual levels of reiatsu usually serves as a shield that breaks any mental communication that might otherwise occur. You must learn to center yourself even when being 

attacked, so it shouldn't matter if I remove this sword or not. Now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in an empty room."

Kenpachi gave one evil glare back at the masked man before complying with his instructions. Soon enough, the gigantic taicho had himself pictured in an empty room. "Now what?" he grumbled impatiently.

"Take a few more moments to calm yourself." Was the only response he got in return. Immediately Kenpachi's irritation nearly shot through the roof, but he remembered himself at the last second. Slowly counting to twenty Kenpachi found himself slowly calming down. After a few minutes of silence and calmness Urahara spoke in barely a whisper as if in fear of disturbing the tranquility.

"Now… imagine yourself in that room calling out for your Zanpakuto. It doesn't have to be in words. It can simply be a feeling."

The 11th division captain frowned at the absurdity of the request while keeping his eyes shut. With a mental shrug he decided to try out the suggestion. In his mind's eye the mini Kenpachi was now shouting for his cowardly Zanpakuto to show himself while launching a few rather abusive comments around. To his immense surprise a faint voice answered back.

"You're waking me up from my nap," spoke a drawling, tired voice.

"Eh, what the hell?" thought the confused chibi form of Kenpachi.

"What the hell do you mean 'what the hell?' You are the one who came to visit me… not the other way around. If anyone has the right to say that around here it's me." The voice came from the opposite side of the blank room that the mini-Kenpachi was standing in. When Kenpachi squinted his eyes real hard he imagined that he could see a large hulking, but blurred, outline. The object in question was odd in shape with a large wide base that tapered off to a single waving point at the top. Beyond a vague shape, nothing could be discerned.

"Just who are you, anyway? I don't remember imagining a giant blurry outline when I visualized this room."

"I am, &, your Zanpakuto." At the mention of the name Kenpachi nearly buckled over in vertigo and wasn't able to even see straight. "Couldn't you tell who I am the moment you saw me, and why did you call me a giant blurry outline?" The Zanpakuto sounded almost hurt that he was not recognized.

Getting to his feet Zaraki shook his head to clear the mental distortion from his mind. "First off; whatever you just tried to say there… don't say it again. Secondly, all I can see of you is a big blurry shadow. Nothin' else."



Momentary pause. "What do you mean? All I said was my name, &#&#. Certainly that shouldn't be uncomfortable for you." For all that it was worth the Zanpakuto truly seemed to be oblivious to the nausea and discomfort that the mention of the word puts Kenpachi in.

"Agh! Your name, you idiot, your name! Everytime you say it I feel like my head is gonna split and my eyes are gonna pop outta my sockets." Growled Kenpachi as he gripped his forehead with his left hand.

"Well, maybe you should just try a little harder to hear me. You must be holding yourself back somehow on a subconscious level."

"Oh, you tell me to just 'try harder?' What kind of joke is that? If I try any harder my brain is going to explode!" Replied a stubborn Kenpachi.

"Tch. Not like I'm going to be the one who is going to put forth effort now. I tried so hard in the beginning to get you to talk to me. Now, you should be the one who uses a little bit of elbow grease in this charade of a partnership." Sniffed the indignant Zanpakuto.

Needless to say, Kenpachi did not take this well. He began cracking his knuckles and flexing his hands aggressively before taking off in pursuit of the names Zanpakuto. "Why you little… when I get my hands on you I'm gonna ring my hands around your neck!"

The shadowy Zanpakuto quickly took off with Zaraki in hot pursuit. It yelled back as it ran, "Who said I even have a neck for you to ring, eh Ken-chan? You'll have to run faster than that to catch up with me!"

After many minutes of hectic chasing in a room that, at first seemed to be quite small but, turned out to not even have any boundaries Kenpachi finally stopped chasing. Next, he started screaming out incoherent and random insults at the chortling Zanpakuto, but as he rapidly gained more control of himself the insults started becoming more focused and biting. Until finally, "I have no idea why I even had the insane notion of getting to know you, let alone pairing up with you for power, you stupid worthless sword! You're just a useless talking hunk of scrap metal!"

The amused chuckling quickly stopped followed by an eerie silence. Even Kenpachi was aware that he might have crossed a very dangerous line. The normally lazy and drawling voice was now focused and cruel sounding.

"For hundreds of years I have been trying to communicate with you. To reach our potential! But, no, ever since THAT time I have been ignored or worse, and now that we are finally communicating YOU CAN'T EVEN HEAR MY NAME! YOU DON'T EVEN CARE! If you don't want to show me any respect, then I'm afraid that I will have to teach it to you… all over again."

Quick as a shot the shadow came at Kenpachi. Due to the nature of his opponent the giant was having problems anticipating any blows that came his way. All he knew is that every single blow felt like he was being hit with a club or ripped by claws. Whatever he was fighting, it was most definitely not made of flesh, but of something much harder and unforgiving.



In a moment of insight Kenpachi hopped back and brought his arm up to block a move that he could read. The resulting impact snapped his forearm and a quick pair of unseen stabs ripped into his chest. The 11th division Taicho was reeling in surprise when the appendage he blocked just a split second ago shot forward in a jabbing motion. Unable to react in time Kenpachi watched, and felt, as the appendage stabbed deep into stomach. The last thing he felt before falling unconscious was a deep and powerful burning sensation spreading from the tip of whatever had penetrated his skin.

A/N

Short Chapter I know… Oh well :)


	10. Author Update

Hello everybody. It's your friendly neighborhood author Jhard53. So… Yeah… it's been a while since I updated this story, yeah? I'm a little surprised that I've continued to get PM's regarding the status of this story and people adding to alerts. I've even gotten multiple PM's of readers asking me to put the story up for adoption. I'm flattered and excited by that. Haha. So, now that I have a little free time, seeing as I've graduated college and moved on to a career, I believe it is time for me to continue on with my story.

Now, this brings me to the next part of this little announcement type thing. I am going to be going over my notes on where I was taking the story back when I first started writing, and I'm going to be comparing it up to the different elements and developments in the actual manga. So, if anyone who follows this is still active send me a PM, or leave a review if it pleases you, about your opinions. Input is a valuable resource. :)

Thanks to everyone who sent PM's for the little pokes that have managed to keep this story going.

-Jhard53


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